3D Printing Tips, Tricks & Troubleshooting for the Beginner!
So we have been printing for a few weeks now and have been really impressed with the Creality Ender 3 Pro so far! I think we made the right choice selecting this printer as one to begin our 3D printing journey with!
However, maybe we got a little too ambitious & confident way too quickly!
Read on about some of our early successes, EPIC failures and a few things we learned in our first two weeks of 3D printing!
First Print: The Ladybug
The first print we did was of a ladybug – since my now 11 year old daughter is the whole reason we are getting into 3D printing and she loves ladybugs! We did this print in draft mode and it printed out really quickly and amazingly well! We used the filament that came with the printer (presumably white PLA)
This boosted our confidence right from the get-go!
Second Print: The Die
We followed that up with a really quick print of a die (singular of dice) that Gracie built on 3dSlash.net. We thought it would be cool to print something that one of us built, however simple, rather than something someone else designed.
Another success! We were pumped! Maybe that is where we started to get a little overconfident!
Prints 3, 4 & 5 (Bunny, Monkey & Froggy)
So, if you are not aware – I have 4 kids that range in age from 3 – 11 years old. Since we printed out the ladybug for Gracie – of course – each of the other kids wanted me to print out their favorite animal too!
So that was the next several prints that we did (more precisely – a bunny for 8 year-old Annie, a monkey for 9 year-old Dominick, and finally a froggy for 3 year-old Sophie).
We had a couple of false starts and minor problems with a couple of these. The bunny was our first challenge. As I indicated – our confidence was higher because we got a great print with the ladybug 1st try! So we sliced the bunny model and made it the same size as the lady bug and then uploaded it to the OctoPi and hit print!
A few minutes into monitoring the print job with the OctoPi (See my post: Making an OctoPi (OctoPrint) from a Raspberry Pi – Remote Control Your 3D Printer!) we noticed that it looked like things really weren’t right. The extruder was pushing around what must have been one of the bunny’s legs….
Lesson Learned: There was significantly more surface area at the bottom of both the ladybug & the die models. That being said – there was a LOT more contact with the build plate for those two models compared to just the bottom of the paws for the bunny. So the first layer of both the ladybug & die stuck really well to the build plate – and no brim or raft was needed for either. Not so with the bunny! The bunny needed more of a base to adhere to the build plate!
We added a brim to the bunny and it printed out pretty well – except for one of the ears that got a little goobered up (which, again in hindsight – probably only needed some support – but we didn’t really understand that at this point!)
So next we did the monkey. Dang – one of the back legs just wasn’t quite aligned. Same thing (duh!) it needed more to help it adhere to the build plate. So we reprinted it, again, this time with a brim.
When we were monitoring the print progress through the OctoPi we noticed that when the printer actually started to print the brim, the extruded filament was moving around on the build plate like a loose string. So we stopped the print again!
Lesson Learned: Having extra material used as a brim is great – but only if it ACTUALLY sticks to the build plate! This is when we first started using purple glue stick to help get the brim, raft or model itself to stick to the build plate!
So we printed out the monkey a THIRD time (applying purple glue stick to the build plate) – and it finally turned out pretty well except for part of the tail. (Which, again in hindsight – probably only needed some support – but we still didn’t really understand that at this point!)
Are you seeing a pattern? Yes – it seems we need to learn some of these things through the “School of Hard Knocks!” – or by trial & error!
By time we got to the frog – we finally had a better understanding of what would require a brim or raft. So we printed it out with a brim & used some purple glue stick on the bed to make sure everything stuck.
At this point we were running a little low on the white filament and we thought it would be neat to try out a two color print. After the first few millimeters of printing the frog the last of the white filament was just approaching the motor that pushes the filament through the PTFE tubing to the extruder. I pushed the green PLA filament into the motor right behind the white filament – and presto! – we had a frog that was white on the bottom (feet & belly) and green on its back! Pretty cool!
That frog was a little too small & delicate for Sophie – so we printed a MUCH LARGER one out for her as well! This one all green!
Print # 6: The Robot
We then moved on to printing a robot for Gracie which she got the model from TinkerCAD and modified it herself to place a recessed “G” for Gracie into the robot’s chest. We used a raft here for the first time and again some purple glue stick on the build plate to make sure everything would stick.
Everything looked good and seemed to be working well as the print job progressed until the robot’s legs were done and the jetpack started to be printed. Well the jetpack had a sharp overhang from the legs – and filament was just oozing out in a spiraling fashion where it should have been building the base of the jetpack.
We stopped the print and I grabbed the robot off the build plate. As I examining the robot’s legs and bringing the failed print up the basement stairs I immediately realized that things went sideways when the printer was trying to start the bottom of the jet pack – which was at a 90° angle from the robot’s legs! Gestalt / Eureka / light bulb on! – We needed supports!
I showed Gracie the robot and pointed to where the jetpacks were supposed to be and explained that the printer couldn’t lay down the base layer of the jetpacks – because there was nothing under there except 10 mm or so of air!
We reloaded the model back into CURA and adding the supports was super easy. We set up the supports for the arms and the jetpack – but not the lip on the recessed “G” on the robot’s chest. With the option to select supports for everywhere it showed supports in the “G” – but we wanted to try it without them there. It was a risk we were willing to take – since it was a shallow recess of maybe only 1 mm.
Once that was done we reloaded the robot up to the OctoPi and gave it another shot.
It printed out well!
Lesson Learned: If things tend to get wider as you get further away from the build plate or there are structures with nothing beneath them – supports may be in order!
As we (you) start to look at more models to print – I think some of these things start to become self-evident and the eye is trained to look for them. After just the several prints we have done – I am already looking and realizing when I may need to add a raft, brim or skirt and where supports may be required!
Print # 7: The Predator Pliers!
And that is when we took a huge leap! (arguably too big of one!) I had seen the “Predator Pliers” awhile ago and thought it would be really cool to print them out. So I prepped the build plate with copius amounts of purple glue and brought the model into CURA. I set the length of the pliers to pretty much the maximum I could and started the print job. It too several hours and it looked like it was printing out really well!
Getting back from work, I went down and removed the build plate (magnetic & removable) and brought it upstairs with the predator pliers still adhered to it. I was REALLY impressed with how it looked!
It was easy to pop it off. I didn’t really expect to be able to just pull them off the build plate and be able to open and close the pliers that easily – and I certainly couldn’t! I started to separate some of the pieces – and then began to realize just how daunting the task was going to be!
Things weren’t just sticking together a little – they were really FUSED together!
I got a few of the gears working – but the structure of the pliers is very thin and weak. Here’s how they are now….
I may try to glue this thing together at some point – but I’m not sure. I will also most likely re-print this – but might thicken some of the structural areas first. I was disappointed with this print – since this is something I was REALLY looking forward to printing! I’m not even sure what I will need to change to get a different result at this point!
Lesson Learned: Not sure yet! I will have to figure out WHY the parts fused together so much…..
Print # 8: Hobby3DPrinting.com
At this point I went back to TinkerCAD and decided it would be cool to have the website name printed out. So I did 3 different variants. I raised letter one, a recessed one and a stencil style one. Pretty easy to construct the models in TinkerCAD. I did all three at once – and didn’t really have any problem with the print.
It wasn’t until I brought the build plate up stairs and started to remove the name tags that Gracie realized there was a problem with the “stencil” one. She told me that there was nothing to hold the center of the “o”s, “b”s,”P” and “g”! She was right! When I removed that one – there were big holes in those letters – with no centers! Duh!
Lesson Learned: Thinking in 3D and successfully designing models and printing them is a skill that needs to be developed through experience, and yes, some good old-fashioned trial & error!
Print # 9: Knurled Twist Container
So my thinking now was that I would like to try something that has some moving parts – but is not quiet as complicated as the predator pliers. So we settled on trying the knurled twist container.
I had trouble telling exactly how big this was going to print. I doubled the size when slicing it and for some unknown reason CURA wasn’t showing me the size like it normally does. I don’t know exactly why – and didn’t take the time to figure it out before the print. This thing took 44 HOURS to print!
All was going well until the very end – where the end cap was off-set from the rest of the screw piece. I am not sure WHY this happened yet – since the piece is 200mm tall and my maximum build height SHOULD be 250mm. I suspect that PTFE tube may have gotten snagged on the extruder or something – but I really don’t know for sure.
I did remove the end piece and plan on trying to glue it back in place – but it is a pretty tight fit already – and I am going to have to make sure I line things up correctly. Overall I was relatively pleased with this print!
Lesson Learned: Make sure I KNOW how big a print is going to be, approximately how long it will take and how much filament will be needed! I I rushed in and was foolish for not checking these aspect of the model before starting the print job!
Conclusion
So there you have it – a quick synopsis of our first couple of weeks of 3D printing, what worked for us, what didn’t – and what we learned!
If you are unfamiliar with some of the terms used in this post you might want to check out my post titled: 3D Printing Vocabulary | Beginner’s Guide to Acronyms, Terms & History of 3D Printing.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
